Hard West

The Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 combination delivers playable frame rates in the turn-based tactics game Hard West, but it does not lead the pack among tested pairings. The CPU, with 10 cores and 16 threads, and the GPU, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 128‑bit bus, produce averages that range from 143 FPS at 1080p low settings down to 22 FPS at 4K ultra. The data shows that the pairing sits in the lower quartile of all tested combos, though individual component benchmarks place them within a few percent of well‑known alternatives.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for this GPU/CPU pairing clearly scale with resolution. At Low quality, 1920×1080 records an average of 143 FPS. Moving to 2560×1440 yields 91 FPS, and reaching 3840×2160 drops the average to 48 FPS. The pattern repeats across Medium, High, and Ultra presets: each step upward in resolution cuts the frame rate by roughly the same proportion. For instance, at Medium the 1080p average is 118 FPS, 1440p 74 FPS, and 4K 39 FPS. At High, the numbers are 90, 57, and 30 respectively. Ultra is the least forgiving, with 68 FPS at 1080p, 43 FPS at 1440p, and a mere 22 FPS at 4K.

Such a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions suggests the rendering workload is fundamentally limited by the GPU rather than the CPU. Because every quality preset at each resolution shows similar proportional losses, the frame rate is driven by how many pixels the rasterizer must process. The i5‑13400F, with a 65 W TDP and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, is not being asked to perform exorbitant per‑screen calculations; its single‑threaded 3DMark score of 960 and Cinebench R20 single‑core 1,255 likewise indicate headroom for the graphics pipeline. Consequently, the observed FPS reductions come from the RX 6600’s ability to fill pixel shaders across four million pixels, not from a CPU bottleneck.

At 4K, even the lowest quality preset cannot reach a stable 60 FPS: Low averages 48, Medium 39, High 30, and Ultra 22. Gamers targeting a 4K display will need to drop to the Low preset or render at a lower internal resolution. The 1080p and 1440p results, however, provide a different picture. At 1920×1080, the Low preset achieves 143 FPS, which is well above any standard refresh rate, and even Medium stays above 100 FPS. At 2560×1440, Low returns 91 FPS and Medium 74 FPS, both above the 60 FPS baseline. Thus, the pair is most comfortable at 1440p and below.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1920×1080 with the Low preset?

A: The measured average is 143 FPS, which is the fastest of all recorded settings for this combo.

Q: Which settings at 2560×1440 provide a minimum frame rate above 60 FPS?

A: The Medium preset at 2560×1440 lists a minimum of 63 FPS, with an average of 74. Low reaches 91 FPS average but lacks a minimum‑frame‑rate entry. High averages 57 FPS, Ultra 43.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its near competitors?

A: The i5‑13400F’s average benchmark score is 25,292. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, scores 25,284 with a delta of 0%. The Intel Core 5 120 is 0.3% behind, and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H is 0.4% ahead. The differences are negligible.

Q: At which setting does the 1440p Medium preset exceed 60 FPS?

A: The 2560×1440 Medium preset runs at an average 74 FPS, with a measured minimum of 63. That coarse minimum will keep occasional falls above the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the highest FPS recorded at 3840×2160?

A: The best average at 4K is 48 FPS, achieved with the Low preset. Any higher setting yields average rates below that.

Q: How many other combos does this pairing outplay?

A: This combo ranks 2907 out of 3722 tested on this game, meaning roughly 22% of configurations produced lower frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

Hard West’s combined rank for the i5‑13400F + RX 6600 is 2907 out of 3722 tested combos. That is a low position – only 815 configurations rank lower. The individual components, however, show average results in other metrics: the CPU lies at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. That seeming contradiction stems from the fact that Hard West is a turn‑based tactics game that places a modest load on modern hardware; many high‑end systems can achieve extremely high framerates, so this mid‑range pairing does not stand out. In measured FPS, the i5‑13400F’s single‑core performance (Cinebench R23 3,191) provides enough muscle for the game’s logic, while RX 6600’s 8‑GiB memory capacity and its 224.0 GB/s bandwidth handle the textures. Yet the overall rank is lower than that of most tested pairs, which indicates that the game’s low system requirements allow even mediocre GPUs to run smoothly at high refresh rates on 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table collects all measured frame rates for this combo, in each resolution and quality setting. Where branches contain min/max, they are provided; other data points are absent.

| Resolution | Quality | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|

| 1920×1080 | Low | 143 | — | — |

| 1920×1080 | Medium | 118 | 100 | 135 |

| 1920×1080 | High | 90 | — | — |

| 1920×1080 | Ultra | 68 | — | — |

| 2560×1440 | Low | 91 | — | — |

| 2560×1440 | Medium | 74 | 63 | 86 |

| 2560×1440 | High | 57 | — | — |

| 2560×1440 | Ultra | 43 | — | — |

| 3840×2160 | Low | 48 | — | — |

| 3840×2160 | Medium | 39 | 33 | 45 |

| 3840×2160 | High | 30 | — | — |

| 3840×2160 | Ultra | 22 | — | — |

Design choices stand out: the 1080p Low result (143 FPS) is the only row that suits a 144Hz display, while most other 1080p settings (Medium at 118, High at 90) are suitable for 60‑90 Hz monitors. At 1440p, the Medium preset is the only one that holds a 63 FPS minimum; both Low and High are presentable but the minimums are not given. 4K only in Low average (48 FPS) approaches but does not reach the 60 FPS threshold; all others are below 40 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5‑13400F brings 10 cores and 16 threads, with base clock 2.50 GHz and a 4.60 GHz boost. Its 20 MB of L3 cache and 65 W TDP are modest specifications but its benchmark results put it in a strong position among desktop processors: the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22,604 and single‑core score of 3,191 is evidence of a balanced performer. The Cinebench R20 multicore result of 8,892 and PassMark multithreaded 25,032 further corroborates that the CPU can feed the job without inhibition. In terms of direct competitors, the i5‑13400F’s average benchmark score of 25,292 is within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and Ryzen 7 6800H, and just 0.3% behind the Intel Core 5 120. Essentially, there is no meaningful performance gap among these comparable processors.

Turn‑based tactics typically rely on single‑threaded logic for AI and user input but Hard West does not appear to be demanding in raw core throughput. The game’s measured FPS shows that the 1080p results at Low (143 FPS) exceed the capacity of many common 60 Hz displays, so the CPU is rarely the cause of frame drops. The only limiting configuration is 4K with Ultra – there the average is 22 FPS; the absurdly low frame count is due purely to the GPU trying to render that many pixel shaders on a 1792‑shader‑unit chip.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured rows, the easy path to a robust experience is to pick a setting that keeps the minimum frame rate above 60 FPS. At 1920×1080, the Medium preset meets that easily (min 100, max 135, avg 118). At 2560×1440, Medium is also the best fit (min 63, avg 74, max 86). Low at 1080p and 1440p provides higher averages but lacks a recorded minimum; still, the average is so far above 60 that it plausible the minimum remains >60. High and Ultra at 1080p are playable (90 and 68 FPS averages) but Ultra lacks a reported minimum and has the lower margin.

If a 4K display is the target, the Low preset is the only one that does not drop into the low 30‑20s. At 4K, Medium gets 39 FPS, High 30, Ultra 22 – none truly silky. Since the game franchise emphasizes turn‑based movement, a 48 FPS average on Low may be perceived as acceptable by some players, but for consistent 60 FPS experiences, the system should be run at 1440p Medium or 1080p Medium/High.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6600 is the GL from that pairing that chooses the palette. The GPU has 1792 shaded units, 112 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 8 GB of GDDR6. It operates at a base clock of 1,626 MHz, 2,044 MHz game clock, and 2491 MHz boost. The 128‑bit bus offers 224 GB/s of bandwidth. These numbers define a mainstream card that in its generation sat near 63rd percentile among all GPUs.

Its average benchmark performance is 19,036, and those closest came from NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030) and GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19,049). The GPU’s DirectX 12 result (Steel Nomad) is 1,492, and the Vulkan pass in Geekbench 4 is 67,623. With respect to Hard West, the game is old enough that the easiest way to raise FPS is to lower the resolution or the quality. The 8 GB VRAM is not under pressure at 1080p; that is expected since none of the settings exceeds the available memory. Indeed, the main factor that drops the frame count from 143 at low to 68 at ultra is the pixel shading load, not the VRAM size.

Ultimately, the Intel Core i5‑13400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 provide a stable baseline for Hard West. They excel at 1080p and 1440p, offering smooth 60 Hz experiences on Medium settings, and deliver playable framerates at 4K only under minimal quality. This is a legacy combination that meets the requirements of the archetypal turn‑based strategy, but does not push the boundaries of the game’s frame‑rate potential.